I know a primary care physician who takes fresh fish and other food items if patients can't pay in cash. He can't cook and they bring him food. Pretty good arrangement. It's not extremely lucrative, but this physician isn't in it for the money.
There was an OB-GYN who recently passed away on the Island of Maui. He was eighty years old and had practiced on the Islands for well over 50 years.
He often accepted a lettuce or sack of onions or other produce in return for services. Don't ever remember hearing of any trouble with the IRS but he did have trouble with his wife. He would often make house calls while she would wait for him to return to the office. But he would take sometimes hours for a one-hour call and return with a pineapple instead of a check or cash.
He used to spend countless hours talking and catching up on the latest gossip and local politics with his patients while getting a lettuce in return. Drove his wife nuts.
Needless to say he was a favorite doc in Maui. And he did have a grand lifestyle there regardless of how people compensated him.
She got treated for every illness for very little actual money (*lots* of labor!) and he actually got *more* out of the deal than if he'd been paid in cash. (Organic veggies are very pricy.)
The staff loved her. She'd bake for them. And I'm talking about a *lot* of food. Each member of the staff would get their own pie and loaf of bread. It didn't stop after the visit, either. She'd continue to bring in baskets of fresh eggs, milk, baked goods and preserves. During the fall they'd hit the mother lode. When she'd get hit with a winter bug, she was taken care of. When she had an accident, the shots were on the house. He even greased the skids for her to see a specialist with the same arrangement.
I miss the good ol' days where two consenting adults could come to a mutually satisfying arrangement without it being anyone's business but their own.